This week marks six years since Julian Assange entered the Ecuadorean embassy in London and nearly three years since the UN declared that his situation amounts to an “arbitrary deprivation of liberty.”[1] Over this time, Assange’s health has deteriorated markedly, as colleagues and I reported last January after examining him.[2]
In March, the terms of his confinement became more severe, increasing the risks of what was already a dangerous health situation. Ecuador, which in 2012 granted political asylum to Assange, restricted his visitation and communications and announced an indefinite policy to prevent him from “speaking about politics.”[3] In response, the general counsel of Human Rights Watch, Dinah PoKempner, stated, “his refuge in the embassy looks more and more like solitary confinement.”[4]
Under these circumstances, it would appear that efforts at international diplomacy to preserve his health and protect his human rights have failed. Yet earlier this month, two senior officials of the Australian High Commission visited Assange at the embassy for the first time, representing a turning point that may lead to greater efforts to relieve or at least ameliorate the negative effects that his stay within the embassy has had on his health.
Over this past year, I’ve met with Assange several times at the embassy in London, and have been privy to his conditions and medical record. Assange suffers both physically and psychologically from his prolonged detention—as was found in another evaluation performed in 2015, the results of which were made available to the public.[5] Assange’s detention continues to cause a precipitous deterioration in his overall condition and amounts to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
Within the embassy, Assange is confined mostly to a single room and has had no meaningful access to the outdoors or to natural light in six years. As a result, he has developed myriad health sequelae and endured exacerbations of preexisting conditions. Because of his health issues, in 2015, Ecuadorean authorities requested that he be permitted humanitarian safe passage to a hospital in London; however, this was denied by the UK.[6]
Although physicians are able to visit Assange for evaluations, many are reluctant to do so given their concerns about appearing to associate with Assange by caring for him as a patient. To this day, Assange remains unable to access hospital based diagnostic testing and treatment—even for a medical emergency. In effect, he has gone without proper access to care for the duration of his six years in confinement. Meanwhile, data on the health effects of solitary confinement suggest that the restrictions on Assange since March increase his risks of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and suicide.[7]
— #FreeAssange! (tweets by campaign) (@JulianAssange) June 22, 2018
Access to medical care, a human right, must also be guaranteed to Julian Assange
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